A man attempting to bring his grandfather’s remains home to Indianapolis, got quite a shock at a Florida airport when a TSA agent opened up the container holding the remains, sifted through them with her finger, and then spilled them on the floor. The jar was tightly sealed, marked with the words “Human Remains”, and clearly too small to encase any kind of weapon, but that didn’t stop the TSA agent.
“I was told later on that she had no right to even open it, that they could have used other devices, like an X-ray machine. So she opened it up. She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she accidentally spilled it.,” John Gross told the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis, rtv6.
He was forced to crawl around on his hands and knees trying to pick up his grandfather’s ashes while passengers waited behind him. The TSA agent, simply stood there and laughed.
“She didn’t apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn’t pick up all, everything that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me.”
According to a TSA spokesperson, under no circumstance are human remains to be opened at a security checkpoint and are instead supposed to pass through an X-ray machine. They are supposedly looking at security tapes to figure out what happened. In the meantime, Gross wants an apology for being treated so shabbily. Given TSA’s track record, an apology might be a long time coming.
“I want an apology,” Gross said. “I want an apology from TSA. I want an apology from the lady who opened the jar and laughed at me. I want them to help me understand where they get off treating people like this.”